User:Meyvn/TNOTW

The First Foreshadow

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The Waystone Inn

Setting:

• The Waystone Inn is a full service inn which has been in business since the arrival of its owner, Kote, about a year ago (CH1). It has an exterior sign hanging sign on hooks, wooden floors, a black stone hearth, barrels behind a mahogany bar (CH0).
• It is Felling, early in the night.
• The consistently small crowd and low spirits speak to it being a time of fear and uncertainty. Something happened on Shep's farm last Cendling which no one will mention or inquire about.

Present:

• Kote, owner of the Waystone
• An Inkeeper, a young man in the back room
• Old Cob, town storyteller and advice dispensary
• Jake (Jacob Walker), Shep, and Grahm, childhood friends
• [[The Smith's Prentice}}, a tall man who moved from Rannish when he was 11, still known as "Boy" in town.
• (Later) Carter

Events:

• Old Cob tells a story about Taborlin the Great.

When he awoke, Taborlin the Great found himself locked in a high tower. They had taken his sword and stripped him of his tools: key, coin, and candle were all gone. But that weren't even the worst of it, you see...cause the lamps on the wall were burning blue! Now Taborlin needed to escape, but when he looked around, he saw his cell had no door. No windows. All around him was nothing but smooth, hard stone. It was a cell no man had ever escaped. But Taborlin knew the names of all things, and so all things were his to command. He said to the stone: 'Break!' and the stone broke. The wall tore like a piece of paper, and through that hole Taborlin could see the sky and breathe the sweet spring air. He stepped to the edge, looked down, and without a second thought he stepped out into the open air. So Taborlin fell, but he did not despair. For he knew the name of the wind, and so the wind obeyed him. He spoke to the wind and it cradled and caressed him. It bore him to the ground as gently as a puff of thistledown and set him on his feet softly as a mother's kiss. And when he got to the ground and felt his side where they'd stabbed him, he saw that it weren't hardly a scratch. Now maybe it was just a piece of luck," Cob tapped the side of his nose knowingly. "Or maybe it had something to do with the amulet he was wearing under his shirt. A few days earlier, Taborlin had met a tinker on the road. And even though Taborlin didn't have much to eat, he shared his dinner with the old man. Now this amulet was worth a whole bucket of gold nobles, but on account of Taborlin's kindness, the tinker sold it to him for nothing but an iron penny, a copper penny, and a silver penny. It was black as a winter night and cold as ice to touch, but so long as it was round his neck, Taborlin would be safe from the harm of evil things. Demons and such."

• The crowd argues over details of the story.

• According to Cob, everyone knows that blue fire is one of the Chandrian's signs (CH1), and that it is a mystery where they come from, where they go after they've done their bloody deeds, and whether they are men who sold their souls, demons, spirits, or something else.
• According to Jake, the Chandrian are not demons, but the first six people to refuse Tehlu's choice of the path, and he cursed them to wander the corners—